Minneapolis Administration and Enterprise Oversight Committee Meeting - October 27, 2025
Minneapolis Administration and Enterprise Oversight Committee Meeting - October 27, 2025
The Administration and Enterprise Oversight Committee of the Minneapolis City Council met on October 27, 2025, at 11:31 AM (CT) under the chairmanship of Robin Wansley. The committee addressed a consent agenda of nine items, two gift acceptance requests from the Police Department, a paid parental leave policy amendment, and a closed session on labor negotiation strategy. All six members were present, establishing a quorum.
Consent Calendar
- Approved unanimously (voice vote) nine items: bids for Newton Avenue Sanitary Sewer Reconstruction and Convention Center dish machine/prep table replacement; contracts with Amery National Community Services (loan portfolio management), ABM Equipment LLC (refuse packer bodies), various vendors for executive recruitment services and public works consulting pool (2026–2029); contract amendments with Kimley Horn and Associates (Hennepin F South Street Reconstruction) and Fairview Health Services (Reach Food Resource Navigator Services); and an enterprise risk management ordinance.
Discussion Items
Gift Acceptance for Police Department Staff (Items 10 & 11)
- Director of Police Financial Operations Vicky Trotskick presented two late-submitted gift acceptances: $2,750 for two staff to attend a recruitment workshop (travel occurring prior to Council approval) and $842 for Chief O’Hara to speak at the Tri-City Leadership Academy (travel after Council meeting but before mayor’s review). Trotskick attributed delays to selection processes and new employee awareness gaps; she committed to distributing policy reminders.
- Councilmember Chughtai expressed frustration with repeated late submissions from MPD, noting a pattern of disregard for city policy, and stated he would not vote for such items. Vice Chair Palmasano defended staff professional development travel, citing benefits of promoting Minneapolis nationally. Chair Wansley flagged the need for written corrective measures attached to the items for the full Council.
- Vote: Motion to forward items 10 and 11 to the full Council without recommendation passed 5-1 (Chughtai dissenting).
Paid Parental Leave Policy Amendment (Item 12)
- Amy Freeman from Human Resources requested an amendment to the city’s paid parental leave policy to add foster care placement as a qualifying event, effective January 1, 2026, aligning with the state’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave law (12 weeks partial wage replacement, capped at 20 weeks total). The city’s current policy offers 12 weeks full pay for birth or adoption.
- Freeman confirmed the city will file an equivalent plan with the state, continue collecting the 0.88% payroll tax (likely split 50-50 with employees), and remove the payback provision as it conflicts with state law. Councilmember Cashman raised the payback provision question; Freeman confirmed it will be removed.
- Chair Wansley and Vice Chair Palmasano praised the city’s leadership on worker protections, noting Minneapolis set a precedent that influenced the state law.
- Vote: Motion to approve the amendment passed 5-0 (Chughtai absent).
Closed Session on Labor Negotiation Strategy (Item 13)
- The committee held a closed session under Minnesota Statutes §13D.03 to receive a briefing on strategy for labor negotiations with the Minneapolis Police Officers Federation. A motion to admit Mayor Frey’s policy advisor John Frude passed by voice vote. The committee voted to close the meeting, then reconvened in open session at 2:54 PM, confirming a quorum (five members present) and adjourned.
Key Outcomes
- Consent agenda adopted without objection.
- Gift acceptances for police staff forwarded to full Council without recommendation (5-1). The committee requested written policy compliance measures be attached before the November 6 Council meeting.
- Paid parental leave policy amended to include foster care placement (effective Jan 1, 2026); payback provision eliminated. Approved 5-0.
- Closed session held for labor negotiation strategy; no further public action taken.
Meeting Transcript
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Robin Wansley, and I am the chair of the administration and entreprise oversight committee. I am going to call to order our regular scheduled meeting for today, October 27, 2025. But before we begin the meeting, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all committee members, staff, and the public that these meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation. These broadcasts include real-time captioning as a further method to increase the accessibility of our proceedings to the community. Therefore, all speakers need to be mindful of the rate of their speech so that our captioners can fully capture and transcribe all comments for the broadcast. We ask all speakers to moderate the speed and clarity of their comments. I'll now have the clerk call the role. Councilmember Payne. Present. Vita present. Cashman present. Chuck Tai, present. Vice Chair Palmasano present. Chair Wansley. That is six members present. Thank you, and let the record reflect that we do have a quorum today. Also, I'll remind my colleagues that excuse me per usual. We're using speaker management. And if you're having any issues signing in, please find the clerk who is sitting right at the end of us. Who can assist you with that? All right. So first we're going to take up the consent agenda, which has nine items, and I'll read that for the public record. The first is a bid for Newton Avenue Sanitary Sewer Reconstruction Project. Two is a bid for a convention center dish machine and prep table replacement project. Three is a contract with Amery National Community Services, LLC for loan portfolio management and loan development services. Four is a contract with ABM Equipment LLC to provide loan master refused packer bodies and temper assemblies. Five is master contracts with various vendors to establish an executive recruitment services pool for executive search services. Six is master contracts with various vendors for the 2026 through 2029 public works consulting pool. Seven is a contract amendment with Kimley Horn and Associates Inc. for engineering and design services for the Hennepin F South Street Reconstruction Project. Eight is a contract amendment with Fairview Health Services for Reach Food Resource Navigator Services. And number nine is an entreprise risk management ordinance. With that, I will move these items for approval and see if there's any questions in the queue. All right, see no one getting in for further discussion. I will do a sample voice vote. All in favor say aye. Aye. Those opposed. All right, the ayes have it, and that motion carries. Discussion item number 10. Our first discussion items related to actually to item 10 and 11, which are related to gift acceptance for the police department staff, um, several staff. Specifically, I will ask uh Vicky Trotskick Trouswick, the director of police financial operations to speak on both items. Um and yeah, I'll invite Vicky up. Thank you, Chair Wandsley, committee members. Uh, the first guest gift acceptance um is to accept funds from the Arnold Foundation for travel for two to participate in a recruitment workshop. This action was not submitted timely. The travel is for 10 28 and will have occurred prior to the full council on 11.6. I was told that the delay was related to selecting a recruitment team member, and also the new employee wasn't aware of the timeline. We have added this to our new employee handout in order to prevent this in the future.
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